Srinagar, Aug. 11 -- By Dr. S. Bashir Ahmad Veeri

Something happened in Makkah this month that changes how the Middle East thinks about its own protection.

Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan signed a joint defense agreement declaring that an attack on one signatory will be treated as an attack on all three.

The language highlights NATO's Article 5, but the resemblance stops at the sentence.

Unlike NATO, the three governments have not spelled out what military obligations would actually follow an attack, which means the agreement's power right now is political rather than operational.

Officials in Ankara and Riyadh have been careful with their language, calling the pact defensive and denying it amounts to a Sunni military bloc, a nucl...